9 Arm Exercises for Stroke Patients with Pictures

These 9 exercises for stroke patterns are broken up into 3 difficulty levels, so there’s something for everyone to try.

Read through the directions carefully so that you know how to perform each exercise correctly.

Then, follow along with Barbara, OTA, for this awesome arm rehab exercise sequence!

Level 1 Arm Exercises

You will need: A cane, chair, tabletop, and a full water bottle.

These arm exercises are great for stroke patients with limited mobility in their affected side of the body.

They involve lots of good stretching and passive movement, which helps you retrain your brain and regain arm movement.

Let’s get started!

Exercise 1: Cane Leaning

Sit in chair with your legs hip width apart. Then, with a cane on your affected side, place your affected hand on the hands, and then place your unaffected hand on top.

Then, stretch and lean into your affected side. Be sure to keep your feet planted on the ground and use your non-affected side to help keep you steady.

Feel a nice stretch, then return to an upright position. Repeat 5 times.

Exercise 2: Circle Movement

Place a water bottle on top of a table. Then, lace your fingers together and wrap both hands around a water bottle.

Then, make large circular movements with your arms. As you move around in this big circle, focus on really stretching your affected arm.

Perform 10 big, slow circles.

Exercise 3: Straight Push

Place the water bottle on the table away from you at arm’s length.

Then, interlace your fingers and rest your hand and forearm on the table. Then, stretch and reach your arm across the table to tap the water bottle. If you can, try pushing the water bottle a little farther away from you.

Then, pull your arms back down in front of you and rest your shoulders down. Put just as much attention and focus into pulling your arms back in as you do pushing them out.

Complete 10 pushes.

Level 2 Arm Exercises

You will need: A tabletop and a full bottle of water.

For the level 2 exercises, you will start to isolate your affected side.

Instead of using your non-affected arm to assist your affected arm, you will start to do these movements ‘actively.’

Exercise 1: Punching Movement

Place the water bottle on the table in front of you, and then place your forearm on the table with your hand in a fist.

While you do this movement, be extra mindful not to raise your shoulder. Although your shoulder will want to help, we are working on retraining your arm, so try to isolate your arm as much as possible.

Repeat this punching movement 10 times.

Exercise 2: Pushing Movement

Place a water bottle on the left side of the table within your range of motion. Then, hook your wrist on the outside of the bottle.

Then, use your arm to push the bottle across the table. If you can do this without moving your body, great! If you need to move your body to accomplish this task, then that’s okay. You’re still retraining your brain and working on regaining arm movement.

When you’re done, hook your wrist on the other side of the bottle and push it back across the table.

Repeat this back and forth pushing a total of 5 times.

Exercise 3: Unweighted Bicep Curls

If you can perform a full bicep curl, then move onto the level 3 exercises.

If you have trouble curling your arm and releasing it back down, then this is a great exercise for you.

Start with your elbow on a table with your arm bent at 90 degrees. Then, curl your arm up just a little, and then release it back down just a little.

Notice how small the movement is. Start here and you will still make good progress.

Try to push your range of motion and make slightly bigger movements each time.

It’s important to remember that bringing your arm down is just as important as bringing your arm up.

The upward motion activates your bicep, and the downward motion activates your tricep. Both are equally important, so focus on them equally, too.

If you have trouble curling your arm up, then tap on your bicep to activate the muscle.

Repeat slowly for a total of 5 times.

Level 3 Arm Exercises

You will need: A water bottle and a nice comfy seat

These exercises are the most difficult, so if you can’t do them don’t be discouraged. You can work your way up to them!

Exercise 1: Weighted Bicep Curl

Hold a water bottle in your affected hand and hang your arm down by your side.

Then, while keeping your elbow glued to your side, bring the bottle up to your shoulder. Then bring it back down just as slowly.

You are working your tricep when you bring your arm down, and your bicep when you bring it up; and they both need equal amounts of attention.

Complete 10 bicep curls.

Exercise 2: Open Arm Movement

Sit comfortable and hold a water bottle with your affected hand. If it’s too heavy, try the exercise with no weight and work up from there.

For the exercise, keep your elbows glued to your sides at all times.

With your arms bent at 90 degrees, open your arms up so that your forearms come out to your sides.

Really focus on squeezing your shoulder blades together when your arms are opened up the widest.

Then, move your arms back to center.

Repeat this movement 10 times.

Exercise 3: Side Arm Raise

This is the most difficult exercise of them all, so be extra mindful about doing the movement correctly.

While sitting on the edge of your bed or couch, hold a water bottle in your affected hand and place your arm out to your side.

Then, lift the water bottle up while keeping your arm straight. Make sure that the entire movement is happening in your arm. Try not to let your shoulder hike up.

If this is too difficult, try doing it without the water bottle and see if that improves your range of motion.

Complete this movement a total of 5 times and take a well-deserved break.

And that’s a wrap!

Want faster results?

If you’d like to boost your results, you need to complete more reps.

Repetition stimulates neuroplasticity in the brain and helps reconnect your mind to your muscles. This is the key to recovery.

You can accomplish at least 400 repetitions per session with our home therapy device, FitMi – even if you have severe impairment.

That’s a lot of reps! Which means that neuroplasticity is being activated to the max and you see faster results.

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Stroke Survivor Spotlight: How Ronald Got Back to Driving

"When my outpatient rehab was over I struggled with my exercises because I had no feedback. With the FitMi, I have immediate feedback and also weekly feedback on how well I am doing.

I am having great fun with this product. It motivates me daily to continue and to surpass yesterday's accomplishments and to look forward to today's, tomorrow's, and the weekly review of what I've done.

I have noticed real-world results as well.

I drive one-footed now rather than two-footed because I can target the gas pedal and the brake with my right foot. I can target the cruise control set button with my right hand.

These accomplishments are due to the exercises and feedback of the FitMi. I can now clap my hands which was impossible before the FitMi exercises.

I cannot say enough about the quality and the results of this product, and it was worth of every penny. I have also shared with many others who might improve with the use of the FitMi."

We're so glad that FitMi has helped Ronald get back to driving as usual. That's a huge accomplishment!

If you're trying to improve movement in your body too, then FitMi can help you do it 12x faster than regular therapy.